A defendant in a securities-related arbitration is seeking to overturn a $1.4 million panel award, alleging “evident partiality.” Arbitration defendant Morgan Keegan & Co. backs up that allegation with some usual evidence: a dissenting opinion by one arbitrator who claims another arbitrator was “biased.”

The background to the dispute is as follows, according to the original petition in Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. v. Lawrence B. Dale, et al., filed Jan. 16 in Dallas’ 191st District Court.